


clarity

by ameriboo



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Developing Friendships, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gift Giving, One Shot, Romantic Fluff, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26802238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ameriboo/pseuds/ameriboo
Summary: For peace, keep an amethyst close to the heart.
Relationships: Kasumi | Misty/Ookido Shigeru | Gary Oak
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	clarity

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i don't own anything. 
> 
> old drabble transferred from fanfic.

**For peace, keep an amethyst close to the heart.**

Misty finds it at an outdoor flea market.

She _loves_ her city. She adores how salty the air taste and how almost every street is paved with brick. She loved how no one judged her for walking around in flip-flops because almost everyone else was wearing them. But Misty's love for her city exponentially grows when the weekends hit because the outdoor flea market opens its doors. Every Saturday and Sunday morning, downtown Cerulean City becomes filled with people of all walks of life, walking by tables and stands as the vendors sell them their collected treasures. And junk.

Misty began her weekly flea market trip by buying freshly squeezed juice from one of the fruit stands. She was a sucker for all the dried lavender, bundles of sunflowers, fresh produce, ceramic bowls, and essential oils arranged by stand in a colorful line.

As she drinks her mango-hibiscus chia seed concoction, Misty notices an older gentleman playing the cross-word behind his table of antique jewelry. Her eyes sparkled at the assortment of rings and earrings and bracelets and gemstones. All were unique in make and shape.

Bronze and gold and silver. Quartz and pearl and jade.

"Leader Misty," the old man snuffs, "welcome to my stand."

Misty smiles at the grumpiness of his eyebrows but the softness in his eyes. "Hi there," she greeted him. "These pieces are all so amazing."

The man huffs with pride as he marks his newspaper with red ink.

From the corner of her eye, she spots a necklace hidden behind a black obsidian stone.

"May I?" She asks, feeling strangely drawn to the necklace.

"Go 'head."

Misty reaches over the obsidian stone and gently holds the necklace in the palm of her hand. It was simple: a long chain and a medium-sized crystal. She lifts it high towards the sunlight, studying the curves of the crystal and admiring the way the light shifted on the crystal. It was shaped like a teardrop but unlike the cerulean blue of a Mystic Water or the Cascade Badge, it was a deep violet color.

It was an amethyst.

Knowing her sisters and their fascination with marketed spirituality, Misty was told by them that amethyst held many properties. Misty can see the large purple amethyst sitting on her sister Violet's ring finger, but she remembers how the crystal represented truth and intuition and purification of negative thoughts.

"You like it?" the older gentleman asks, bringing her back to earth.

The leader can't exactly put her finger on the materialized connection, but she can't deny it reminds her of someone. Dark, viridian eyes and a knowing grin strikes her senses and things are clearer. Recalling the stress that someone is going through, Misty remembers wishing she could do more for him as he prepares for the next step in his career on less than two hours of sleep per night.

It wasn't like she was, like, in _love_ with him or anything. They were friends! And by the friendship rulebook, gifts between friends are normal and even suggested during times of crisis. Like the time she was there to help him detox from when he mixed his energy drink with his double-shot of espresso. Or when he tripped and fell into an underground natural pool while searching for fossils at Cerulean Cave. Misty almost peed from how much she laughed. Good times.

Staring at the pendant dangle in front of her, Misty smiles to herself. Then she realizes, she likes it more than she cares to admit.

She nods to the vendor, half-embarrassed and partially delighted, and pulls out her wallet.

. . .

Gary _loves_ attention. He has grown a lot since his years on the road, but he cannot deny the freshness he feels from hearing his name and the recognition he gets from his successes.

As a boy, he had a cheer squad for hire for crying out loud. Blame it on his parent's emotional distance or how his grandfather gave Ash Ketchum one more golden star than him but to Gary, he wanted all the gold stars. This is why he has spent approximately a year on planning, seven months conducting fieldwork in Kanto, three months arranging his filed notes into a decent draft, and two months on the presentation for the Pokemon League. Gary's work on ancient pokémon and archaic wild pokémon habitats had sparked the beginning of his research.

His thesis work is practically his pokémon egg and he considers it his ticket to becoming a recognized researcher outside of Samuel Oak's legacy.

It's up to the League to give him a solid letter of recommendation for his application in aiding Professor Rowan, the leading researcher in the Sinnoh region, as his assistant through a cross-regional exchange program. Step one was becoming Rowan's assistant then step two get into Celadon University to begin his degree. Even after countless offers from grandpa to help with the application process, and after rejecting each offer, Gary has put extra dedication and truth and faith into this project without his family's help.

But today was the day and he felt downright cloudy in the mind, lacking the clarity he needed to properly win the hearts of the crowd with his brains and words. The three cups of black coffee he had in the morning had his stomach doing flips and his nerves on fire. His heart was beating at a pace so fast he would put money on crashing in front of the crowd of hundreds. From League researchers and investors to Elite Four members and gym leaders, Gary must convince them of the validity of looking at the evolutionary trends of fossil pokémon to make predictions of future traits of their descendants. He has no choice but to condense all his time and love in a twenty-minute _slideshow_ presentation. A twenty-minute slideshow he will present the Indigo League's biggest lecture hall. A slideshow? How can anyone experience all of his hard work just through a slideshow?

In less than ten minutes, he was going to present the beginning of his career. Standing behind the red velvet curtain, waiting for the introduction to cease, he tries to ignore the surfacing feelings of fear and cloudiness.

Gary curses as his phone kept vibrating his pocket. These text messages were adding to his already high levels of stress.

The contact name Tracey Sketch-shit and Gary's prized image of Tracey half-asleep on the toilet surface on his phone screen as Gary opens the messages.

**(4:10) IMAGE SENT.**

**(4:10) dude the prof and me and ms. ketchum and your sister are all in the front row (:**

**_(4:10) IMAGE RECEIVED_ **

It's a blurry selfie of all of them, smiling wide at the camera. Gary notices how the seat between Ms. K and Tracey is empty. Then a wave of worry washes over him. _Did she end up not coming_? Gary thinks to himself.

**_(4:11) Thanks Trace. I'm glad you guys are here. I'm beginning to feel self-doubt for the first time in my life so it's nice knowing you guys are there to see my potential failure_ **

**_(4:11) Also I'm tired of telling you. The smiley faces are creepy man_ **

**(4:11) of course. anytime! for it is my duty as best bro! and shut up you're gonna do great! even if you hate the smileys >:(**

**(4:12) btw there is a good luck charm heading your way right now ;)))**

**_(4:12) ?_ **

**_(4:12) What do you mean by good luck charm?_ **

**(4:13) also p.s. I think it's highly disturbing you have never felt "self-doubt" before in your life**

Before Gary had the chance to message for an explanation, he feels someone taps his shoulder and turns around.

_Oh,_ he thinks to himself, _I see_.

"Misty?" Gary sounds surprised, whispering as he slid his phone into his pocket. "What—what are you doing here?"

The ginger flippantly waves her hand, as if sneaking backstage to a professional lecture wasn't a big deal. "Well, you invited me."

"Not what I meant exactly but uh, I'm actually really glad you're here," he tells her, scratching the back of his neck. "Don't say anything but I'm close to vomiting."

"Gary Oak? Nervous?" She teases softly, patting his shoulder playfully. "I thought that was, like, genetically impossible for you."

"I am a human being, Williams." Gary gestures towards his entire body, thumping his hands against his chest strangely like a mankey. "I have flaws!"

Misty waves off his fake pain. "Honestly, you don't have anything to worry about," she dismissively responds, reaching for something in her pocket.

"Ya know, I would appreciate it if you had some words of encouragement or…um," Gary blanks on his words, loses his train of thought as his focus shifted to the small velveteen pouch in Misty's hand that was held up to him. "What's that?"

"It's ah, a gift," Misty tells him, a little awkward at the delivery. "For you." She places the pouch in his hand, their fingers brushing against each other slightly at the sudden contact.

Gary flushes and accepts the gift, digging inside and pulling out a long chain with a low hanging teardrop-shaped pendant. The pendant was a deep purple and nothing like he has ever seen before.

He was a fan of jewelry, favoring his old yin-and-yang necklace but this pendant was different. It was beautiful.

"I—" Gary breaks off, still a bit taken back and processing how if it was scientifically possible for his heart to leap into his throat because it sure as hell felt like it did. "It's for me?" He slightly winces at the way his voice seems to sound like it's cracking.

_Smooth Gary, keep it smooth._

Misty's lip twitches upwards. "No, it's for Champion Lance," she teases, smiling widening a little when Gary rolls his eyes playfully at her sarcasm. "Consider it me putting a protection charm on you from any failure tonight." Misty, ever so theatrical, waves her fingers around as if she was casting a spell.

Gary immediately ties the pendant around his neck, a soft smile tugging at the corner of his lips, and finds himself staring directly into Misty's eyes. Gratefulness painted on his face like acrylics on canvas.

"I love it."

Her face turns noticeably pinker than before, clearly happy at his response to her gift. "Warn me before you smile all sincere like that."

He lets out a chuckle.

"I mean it," Gary insists, holding the amethyst between his fingers, admiring it closely. "Thank you, Misty."

The cloudiness and nerves ebbing away, making room for something he can only describe as a sense of calm. His thoughts clearer and his stomach shedding away the earlier unease.

He didn't know if it was the necklace providing him a newfound strength or the support and smiles from a certain friend.

"Well, it's the least I could do," she offers, bumping a tiny fist to his shoulder. "But I just wanted to say…. go get 'em."

Gary nods, his lips turning upward with confidence as he straightened out his back. He begins to hear to the fading of the introduction music and realizes that's his cue.

"Oh, shit it's time."

Misty squeezes his shoulder as a sign of support. "We'll see you after. And hey, once you ace this presentation, how about a celebratory visit at the Cerulean flea market next weekend? Juice on me."

Gary puts his hand over hers, feeling a thousand emotions running throughout his blood as seconds approached. "Can't wait."

"Ladies and gentlemen," the narrator calls out from the front stage. "Please put your hands together for your presenter, Gary Oak!"

Clapping and cheers reverberate throughout the air. It was time.

Before Misty could even take a step away from him, Gary confidently pulled her face towards him, and swiftly kissed her cheek.

In shock—her eyes wide, Misty touches her blazing cheek, looking flustered and unable to fully comprehend what Gary just did.

The gift close to his heart, her words of support, and that look in Misty's eyes was that final juice he needed.

He had this in the bag. He was Gary _motherfucking_ Oak.

"Consider it a thank you," Gary winks at her, before turning to take his place on stage head-on.

**.**

**.**

**.**

**Author's Note:**

> how did you think gary got his purple necklace? love you guys. xoxo


End file.
